Posts Tagged ‘products’

I must say that I’m very proud to review this product for you today because I actually used up the entire jar without switching to something else!

YAY!

Darcy’s Botanicals’ Natural Coils Curling Jelly is a light, all-natural curl enhancing liquid gel with a very soft hold. This product is usually suggested to be used on wash-and-goes or for shingling, but I do neither. That being said, this product review is going to be a little… off.

I initially purchased this product immediately following my BC to define and soften my coils so I could wear them outside in the balmy August/September weather (in Atlanta, around that time of the year, it’s still sweat-stain hot outside, so wash-and-goes are perfectly appropriate).

Until I got it home and realized that, unless I needed to wet my hair in the morning for some odd reason (like, say, taking swimming lessons at 5:30 AM on Fridays… yeah) I wouldn’t be wears WnGs too often. Why?

Because coily hair, when coiled up on itself, isn’t exactly a breeze to detangle.

So I ended up briefly experiencing this product in two different ways: for 2 wash-and-goes (WnGs) and many, many slicked back puffs.

The first couple of times I used this product, it was after a thorough ‘poo-ing to get all of the chlorine out of my hair (ahh, swimming lessons are just great, aren’t they). I would wash, condition, rinse (with cold water), apply some Kinky-Curly Knot Today as a leave-in, detangle with the Jilbere shower comb (best $1.59 I ever spent), and smooth two fingertips full of the product through each of the (at the time) four sections, then use a Denman brush (more on those later) to go through the hair at the very front. Then, I’d double-over a headband and create a puff, covering my hair with a scarf for about 30 minutes to give it time to set.

If it sounds like a lot to do in the hour-and-a-half I had between the end of PT and when I left for my first class… well, that’s because it was. I was struggling, y’all.

But when I used this stuff, my slightly undefined hair would turn into a sea of the tiniest, tightest coils with larger 3c-ish curls in the crown. And the front stayed slicked back for two days, lasting even through my unbelievable sweating during a weekend work-out… and my hair wasn’t hard. It was strange. I’ve never used a gel that left my hair both light and soft while still acting as… well… a gel.

I finished off the jar with my puffs, which usually came about midway through the week, when I was too tired or too busy to fully redo my hair, but still needed to look human. Also, my hair had to be “restrained” (their words, not mine) for uniform day, when I’d don my ACUs and walk around campus looking like a little pint-sized warrior. HOOAH!

But this product never failed me. As long as I sprayed the front of my hair down enough to get it damp, smoothed on a fingertip-full of the gelly, and went over it with a boar-bristle brush before tying a scarf over it to keep it in place while it dries. the result; a soft, slick, non-crunchy braid-out/puff. It holds up well under my patrol cap and creates the deepest waves I’ve ever seen in my hair. This stuff murders Eco-Styler and kicks LA Gel’s ass. Word.

Final Verdict: 10/10 and I will definitely repurchase. This is a Holy Grail.

This product review came from me trying out a new brand that I saw on MahoganyKnots’ blog. Now, I love trying new, cheap products with good reputations, and I honestly came at this product wanting it to work.

I really, really did.

I went to Wal-Mart on Black Friday to get this product… alone… by myself.

So when I got home, I was dying to do my hair in a braid-out. I co-washed my hair thoroughly and applied Kinky Curly Knot Today as my leave-in conditioner, then the strengthening crème. Ohhh… my hair felt so soft, like butter! I braided my hair up and went to sleep confident that the next day’s braid-out would truly be worth declaring this product an HG. It was just that good.

And then I woke up.

My hair was shiny, smooth, and crunchier than a bag of Doritos. WTF???

Now I’ve never been the type to be protein sensitive, so I know that wasn’t the case, and I’ve since done henna and protein treatments with no problem, but this stuff made my hair feel just awful.

Don’t get me wrong, now: it looked amazing… but it felt absolutely horrible.

Then I looked on the back at the ingredients and I finally understood what went wrong: it contained mineral oil, my liquid arch nemesis. My hair hates mineral oil more than George W. Bush hated Saddam.

We ain’t never ever been friends.

It just sits on top of my hair like a greasy shield and makes it crunchy and shiny, which I hate.

Once I saw that, I was through. I knew it would never work, so I stopped trying and gave it to a friend to try once I got back to school. Surprisingly, it worked well for her. That just goes to show you that not all “bad ingredients” are necessarily bad for you.

Anyway, this product gets a 4/10 because of how hard it made my hair, while trying to perpetrate with all that shine and softness in the beginning. Phoney Baloney.

Blegh. This product just wasn’t for me, but I look forward to trying more from this line. It looks promising, despite my less-than-stellar results with the strengthening crème.

A few months back, I had a little extra spending money and, unlike most 20-somethings I know (Oh, BTW, December 21st marked my 21st birthday, officially making me a “twenty-something”) I spent it putting gas in my tank and moisture in my hair! Y’all know I love my hair!

That was when I was really looking for a lotion-like product to braid my hair with, and the best option at the time was Sweet Ambrosia by Karen’s Body Beautiful.

I mainly use this lotion to soften my hair for re-braiding, or as a light conditioner after washing or co-washing. The reason I bought this lotion was as a means to condition my hair without waiting forever for it to dry or having to wear it semi-wet outside of my dorm room (*cough cough* Kinky Curly Knot Today). What I found was my hair not only dried faster, but ended up much softer and shinier than when I used Knot Today. It’s also cheaper (Woohoo) and I’m pretty sure that, if used with some flax seed gel, this could make a great combo for braid-outs and twists! I really like this leave-in, but I’d also like to try Oyin Handmade’s new Hair Dew just because it’s rumored to be comparable to the Sweet Ambrosia, but cheaper (thereby making it worth a shot).

All in all, 9/10 and, if it beats Oyin’s Hair Dew, I’ll rebuy it and put it in my rotation permanently. For now, I barely have an ounce left to last me until the end of break. Y’all know I refuse to pay shipping and handling, and Oyin will be on the ground in Atlanta by time I get back, so I’m conserving my hair lotion stash until I get back to my beloved ATL.

Anyways, I was looking for a light moisturizer with no glycerin for, you guessed it, the chilly Atlanta winter. I don’t know why, but when I came here from South Carolina, I honestly thought that I’d be going to school in a warmer state.

Silly me.

For those of you coming here in search of refuge from the cold, don’t get too excited: it’s only “Hot-lanta” in the summer. In the winter, this place is a cold, scary hell complete with sliding cars and idiot city officials who don’t know what it means to salt the roads.

Sorry guys, just a little bitter.

The Atlanta winter was doing a real doosie on my hair, so I went to Sage Naturalceuticals one mildly cold day when I didn’t have to wait for my car to heat up. The very knowledgeable owner, Cindy Primm, listened to my hair issues and recommended that I try Bee Mine’s Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer and see if that would do the trick. She’s kind of like a coil whisperer. Y’all should check her out 😉

So I went ahead and bought a 2 ounce container for $5 (damn) and gave it a test drive. I ended up re-upping on the product when I ran out, so I guess I’d have to call it a keeper…

Name: Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer

Company: Bee Mine Products, Inc.,

Price: $18.00 for 8 fluid ounces (It took me a few weeks to even consider purchasing this product PURELY because of it’s price and LACK of a reputation. I mean, let’s be frank: Bee Mine doesn’t have the amazing reputation or cult following that, say, Qhemet Biologics has, regardless of the quality of their products.)

Scent: like lemon cream… absolutely delicious

Texture: light, creamy, and smooth

Experience:

The first time I used this cream, I had just gotten out of the shower from washing (not co-washing) my hair, and first applied Kinky Curly Knot Today as my leave-in. I really wanted to do the Kimmaytube recipe, but… I’d just spent for-freaking-ever washing this mane of hair and I honestly just didn’t feel like spending more time on it than was absolutely necessary. Then, I applied a small, fingertip-sized dollop of the Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer to each of my six sections with a dab (seriously, just as if you are tasting cake batter) of Darcy’s Botanicals’ Glycerin-free Twisting Cream for hold. Finally, I braided my hair up in 4 plaits per section (24 total) and went to sleep dreaming of a soft, fluffy braid-out.

The next morning, after PT, I went ahead and took down my braids to reveal a very fluffy, yet defined braid-out with a little bit of stretch! My hair was so soft, and remained that way through an entire WEEK! Whoa.

All in all, this stuff has absolutely no hold (which I knew from the beginning), but has a ridiculous amount of long-time moisture. I must say, this product is definitely a keeper. I’m just gonna have to be SSSUUUPPPEEERRR stingy with it. If it doesn’t last longer than 4 months, it’s off the list.

I’m not gonna lie… I’m really bored right now. I decided to take a break from moving all of this junk BY MYSELF in a Corolla (do you know how difficult that is) and write, but I can’t will myself to get back up. I’m just extra comfortable right now, with my feet propped up on my mom’s hardly used Ab Lounger and my TV on some obscure local channel. All I can see is this screen, a maze of boxes, and my cute little red toenails in front of me. All I need is some sort of fruity drink with a slice of pineapple and one of those mini-umbrellas perched on the edge, and my life would be 18 different kinds of perfect right now.

I take that back… I’d also need a dark, sexy man with dreadlocks rubbing me down with some unpronounceable oil. Yeah… that’s paradise.

But, since I see neither a pina colada or a tall, dark, bare-chested masseuse in my immediate future, I decided to do another Top 10 post. I figure this could become something I do every week or so.

That being said, here are my top ten products (for all of you product junkies out there):

Bee Mine Bee Hold Curly Butter (Makes the boys go crazy)

AfroVeda Totally Twisted Ginger Almond Butter

AfroVeda Pur Whipped Gelly (finally used this separately from the butter and found that it has great edge control, but a slightly crunchy hold. Still though, I carry a small container around with me for frizz-mergencies)

RenPure “My Pretty Hair is Parched” Shampoo and Conditioner Set (in my world, that only counts as one product)

Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner

Jamila Henna (of course! My hair is still so very soft and smooth! My curls are clumping even with the relaxed ends on!)

Kinky Curly Curling Custard and Kinky Curly Knot Today (I count these as one product because I only use these together on clean hair, or else I get little white balls of grossness all throughout my hair. #notsexyatall)

Aussie Smooth 3 Minute Miracle Deep Conditioner (I love using this on my hair dry as a “prepoo”. It also works well mixed with honey and castor oil.)

Shea Moisture’s Curl Enhancing Smoothie, for smoothing my edges while wearing a puff as well as soothing scalp itches.